Instructions

Fold an 11x 4-1/4” panel of AC Olive cardstock in half to create the base of the card.

Cut a 3-3/4”x4” sheet of patterned DP from Cappella pad (“Libretto”).

Cut a 3-3/4”x2” sheet of the solid DP from Cappella pad (“Bravo”).

Punch the decorative border using EK Success Embossed Curve Border punch along the bottom of the solid “Bravo” DP.

Layer the Cappella papers together as shown in sample.

Add a strip of Cappella Ribbon Doilies paper ribbon to the seam where the two layers meet.

Apply peel-off stickers to the corners and scalloped edge.

Die Cut an oval using Nestibilities Oval die from the solid DP from the Cappella Pad (“Bravo”).

Stamp sentiment onto oval two times – once in Walnut Stain Ink and then over-stamp it again once in Black StazOn. Highlight the sentiment letters with a white gel pen.

Apply strong two-sided tape to the back side of the oval, around the edge where you will attach the ruffle. Set the oval aside, do not attach the it to anything yet.

Create a ruffle by cutting two strips from a piece of patterned Cappella DP (“Mezzo”) _” wide.
Score the entire length of the strips every 1/8”. Adhere the two ends of the strips together.
Gather the strip length on one side so the strip begins to arch. Shape it so that it fits around the oval.
Adhere it to the back side of the oval where you previously applied the strong tape.

Instructions

Start by cutting a piece of each Basic Gray paper the size of the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die. Run these through your die cut machine, resulting in a variety of flowers to pick from.

Pick two contrasting flowers to make your button fairy with – one large and one smaller in size. Put the remaining cut flowers in your “flower stash” for another project.

Go through your bag of Autumn Leaves buttons and find coordinating buttons in varying sizes. Lay them out so you can visually see what the sizes, shapes and colors look like together. You will need about 6” worth of buttons. I also gathered up a couple of basic glass beads, a Tim Holtz vintage trinket pin, and a crystal to help embellish the fairy’s tail. If you don’t have a crystal, don’t worry… you can replace it with a spiral curl of the wire or a dangling glass bead.

To assemble the Fairy’s tail, thread the first button onto the wire leaving about 8” of wire at the top end.
Thread the wire through the first button hole from back to the front. Thread it from front to back in the second button hole. Think of this as being similar to hand stitching the buttons together with thread.

If it is a four hole button, just repeat the process in the second set of holes. You can use 2 hole, 4 hole and shank buttons.

In the photo above, you can see that I added a glass bead to the wire on the second (green) button. After you put the thread through the first hole (back to front), simply place the bead on the wire before threading it into the second hole (front to back).

The wire will run down the back side of the buttons and be almost invisible to the front. Make sure that the buttons are snuggled up next to each other tightly – overlapping a bit. Curve the wired buttons as you go.

You can be very creative with this by adding favorite beads, buttons, and other embellishments. I chose to add a Tim Holtz Vintage Trinket Pin to my “tail”. I threaded it onto my wire when I was threading the buttons together. It has the word “secrets” on it.

At the bottom of the wired button tail, I threaded on a plastic crystal and then secured it by twisting the wire and trimming any excess wire. If you don’t have a crystal, you can add a favorite larger glass bead or other embellishment. You can also create a flat spiral or bend the wire in a zig zag at the end of your tail.

Lay your tail aside.

Take your large flower and with a pen or paint brush handle, curl the flower petal edges backward.

Take the smaller flower and curl it’s petals forward.

Take a bottle cap and flatten it with a hammer. I recycle regular bottle caps. I just run them through the dishwasher. There are many ways to flatten bottle caps but I simple put mine under my old eyelet setting mat and give it a good tap with the hammer. They usually flatten without problem.

Using a Marvy 1” circle punch, punch out a printed face image. Feel free to use a stamped image, or use an actual photo of a person you know. Glue this to the bottle cap using your favorite adhesive.

Next, punch (2) 1” circles from a scrap of cardstock. Adhere one to the back of large flower. This will help in the construction of you fairy. Glue the smaller flower to the front of the larger flower. Glue the bottle cap to the front of the smaller flower.

Lay the excess wire on the top end of your button tail along the backside of your flower stack. Snug the top button up to the edge of the bottle cap at the front of the flower. When you have it lined up where you want it, just tape or glue the wire to the circle on the back of the flower stack.

Take two 3D Foam Squares and place one on each side of the wire. Place the second 1” punched circle directly over the first one. This gives you a nicely finished back on your button fairy. It’s a great place to write a small message or sign your name.

Trim the remaining wire on top to 3 or 4 inches. Make a flat spiral or a simple loop. Add your scrap of ribbon to the wire and now you are ready to hang up your button fairy.

Light the candle and hold each of the white pieces of card over the flame so that it barely touches the flame. Very quickly the flame will begin to soot up the card. Move the piece of card around until the surface is coated in soot. Put aside to cool.

The soot will remained glued to the areas stamped with the Versamark stamp pad. Using either a tissue rolled into a ball or a cotton wool ball, dab gently over the surface until all excess soot has been removed. Spray with a coat of the Matt surface sealer and set aside to dry thoroughly.

Ink the edges of both pieces of soot stamped card then adhere the photo stamped piece to the small brown mat piece.

Adhere the matted piece to the front left of the green card. Attach ribbon to the opposite side.

Attach Text stamped piece using foam dots to other side, half on the ribbon. Tie a piece of the ribbon to one of the clips and slide onto the side of the text piece.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

A Card for Dad

This is a really easy card that looks like a million. I made it for my father for Father’s Day but you can use it for a birthday. And you can change the colors and the word and turn this card into anything! Mom, JOY (for Christmas), Sis; it's limitless!

Attach this piece of cardstock to the middle of your card (onto the glitter cardstock).

Take the smaller strip of glitter cardstock and attach it to the center of your card with mounting tape.

Attach your chipboard letters to the card. I angled mine up for interest.

Idea: Depending on what letters you use, you can dangle a charm off one.
If there is no hole, you can always punch a small one and thread wire or thread through it to tie your charm.

Note: I used chipboard letters from K & Company; the ones I listed above are from Basic Grey.
If you coat them with glue and sprinkle a coordinating glitter on them, you would have a great look!

On the inside of the card I placed a strip of Tim Holtz’ new Tissue Tape at the bottom.
The tissue tape blended in so well with the ivory cardstock that it looks like its part of the paper.
It’s a great design element!

I hope that you will try this card. It’s very easy and great fun! See you next time!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Anytime I think of the color combination pink, black and white, I immediately get swept away to a little French café. I don’t know where that image was born, but it works for me. When I received this great little stamp from Frantic Stamper, I just had to team it up with some pinks and blacks. And what a great way to use the 7 Gypsies transparencies too.